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Walter Benjamin ââåthe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

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1935 essay by Walter Benjamin

In "The Piece of work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935), Walter Benjamin addresses the artistic and cultural, social, economical, and political functions of fine art in a backer social club.

"The Work of Fine art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935), by Walter Benjamin, is an essay of cultural criticism which proposes and explains that mechanical reproduction devalues the aureola (uniqueness) of an objet d'fine art.[1] That in the age of mechanical reproduction and the absence of traditional and ritualistic value, the production of art would exist inherently based upon the praxis of politics. Written during the Nazi régime (1933–1945) in Frg, Benjamin's essay presents a theory of art that is "useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art" in a mass-culture club.[two]

The subject field and themes of Benjamin's essay: the aura of a work of art; the artistic authenticity of the artefact; its cultural authority; and the aestheticization of politics for the production of art, became resources for research in the fields of fine art history and architectural theory, cultural studies and media theory.[3]

The original essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility," was published in three editions: (i) the High german edition, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, in 1935; (two) the French edition, Fifty'œuvre d'art à fifty'époque de sa reproduction mécanisée, in 1936; and (iii) the German language revised edition in 1939, from which derive the contemporary English language translations of the essay titled "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."[4]

Summary [edit]

In "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) Walter Benjamin presents the thematic basis for a theory of fine art past quoting the essay "The Conquest of Ubiquity" (1928), by Paul Valéry, to institute how works of art created and developed in past eras are unlike from gimmicky works of art; that the understanding and treatment of art and of creative technique must progressively develop in order to understand a work of art in the context of the modernistic time.

Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of activity upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. Merely the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they accept attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the Beautiful. In all the arts there is a concrete component which tin can no longer be considered or treated as information technology used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and ability. For the last twenty years neither matter nor space nor time has been what information technology was from fourth dimension immemorial. Nosotros must await slap-up innovations to transform the unabridged technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an astonishing modify in our very notion of art.[5]

Creative production [edit]

In the Preface, Benjamin presents Marxist analyses of the organisation of a backer society and establishes the identify of the arts in the public sphere and in the private sphere. He and so explains the socio-economical conditions to extrapolate developments that further the economic exploitation of the proletariat, whence arise the social conditions that would abolish capitalism. Benjamin explains that the reproduction of art is not an exclusively modern human action, citing examples such as artists manually copying the piece of work of a primary creative person. Benjamin reviews the historical and technological developments of the means for the mechanical reproduction of art, and their furnishings upon guild'southward valuation of a work of fine art. These developments include the industrial arts of the foundry and the postage mill in Ancient Greece; and the modern arts of woodcut relief-printing, engraving, carving, lithography, and photography, all of which are techniques of mass product that let greater accuracy in reproducing a work of art.[6]

Authenticity [edit]

The aura of a work of art derives from authenticity (uniqueness) and locale (physical and cultural); Benjamin explains that "even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is defective in one chemical element: Its presence in fourth dimension and space, its unique being at the place where information technology happens to exist" located. He writes that the "sphere of [artistic] authenticity is outside the technical [sphere]" of mechanised reproduction.[7] Therefore, the original work of art is an objet d'fine art independent of the mechanically accurate reproduction; yet, by changing the cultural context of where the artwork is located, the existence of the mechanical re-create diminishes the aesthetic value of the original work of art. In that way, the aura — the unique artful dominance of a work of art — is absent from the mechanically produced copy.[8]

Value: cult and exhibition [edit]

Regarding the social functions of an artefact, Benjamin said that "Works of fine art are received and valued on different planes. Two polar types stand up out; with one, the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the piece of work. Artistic production begins with ceremonial objects destined to serve in a cult. One may assume that what mattered was their existence, non their existence on view."[9] The cult value of religious art is that "certain statues of gods are accessible only to the priest in the cella; sure madonnas remain covered near all year round; sure sculptures on medieval cathedrals are invisible to the spectator on ground level."[10] In practice, the diminished cult value of a religious artefact (an icon no longer venerated) increases the artefact's exhibition value as art created for the spectators' appreciation, considering "it is easier to exhibit a portrait bosom, that can be sent here and there [to museums], than to exhibit the statue of a divinity that has its fixed identify in the interior of a temple."[11]

The mechanical reproduction of a work of art voids its cult value, because removal from a fixed, private space (a temple) and placement in mobile, public space (a museum) allows exhibiting the art to many spectators.[12] Further explaining the transition from cult value to exhibition value, Benjamin said that in "the photographic prototype, exhibition value, for the first time, shows its superiority to cult value."[13] In emphasising exhibition value, "the work of art becomes a creation with entirely new functions," which "afterward may exist recognized equally incidental" to the original purpose for which the creative person created the Objet d'art.[14]

As a medium of creative production, the cinema (moving pictures) does not create cult value for the motion picture show, itself, because "the audience's identification with the actor is really an identification with the camera. Consequently, the audience takes the position of the photographic camera; its approach is that of testing. This is not the arroyo to which cult values may be exposed." Therefore, "the picture makes the cult value recede into the groundwork, not just by putting the public in the position of the critic, merely also past the fact that, at the movies, this [critical] position requires no attending."[xv]

Art every bit politics [edit]

The social value of a piece of work of art changes equally a society change their value systems; thus the changes in artistic styles and in the cultural tastes of the public follow "the manner in which human sense-perception is organized [and] the [artistic] medium in which it is achieved, [which are] determined not only by Nature, but by historical circumstances, likewise."[7] Despite the socio-cultural effects of mass-produced, reproduction-fine art upon the aura of the original piece of work of fine art, Benjamin said that "the uniqueness of a piece of work of art is inseparable from its being embedded in the textile of tradition," which separates the original piece of work of art from the reproduction.[vii] That the ritualization of the mechanical reproduction of fine art also emancipated "the piece of work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual,"[vii] thereby increasing the social value of exhibiting works of art, which exercise progressed from the private sphere of life, the possessor's enjoyment of the aesthetics of the artefacts (usually Loftier Fine art), to the public sphere of life, wherein the public savour the same aesthetics in an art gallery.

Influence [edit]

In the late-twentieth-century television set programme Ways of Seeing (1972), John Berger proceeded from and developed the themes of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935), to explicate the contemporary representations of social class and racial caste inherent to the politics and product of fine art. That in transforming a work of art into a commodity, the modern ways of creative production and of artistic reproduction accept destroyed the artful, cultural, and political authority of art: "For the first time e'er, images of art accept become ephemeral, ubiquitous, insubstantial, available, valueless, free," because they are commercial products that lack the aureola of authenticity of the original objet d'art.[16]

See also [edit]

  • Aestheticization of politics
  • Art for fine art's sake

References [edit]

  1. ^ Elliott, Brian. Benjamin for Architects (2011) Routledge, London, p. 0000.
  2. ^ Scannell, Paddy. (2003) "Benjamin Contextualized: On 'The Piece of work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,'" in Canonic Texts in Media Research: Are At that place Whatever? Should In that location Exist? How Nearly These?, Katz et al. (Eds.) Polity Press, Cambridge. ISBN 9780745629346. pp. 74–89.
  3. ^ Elliott, Brian. Benjamin for Architects, Routledge, London, 2011.
  4. ^ Notes on Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", a commentary by Gareth Griffiths, Aalto Academy, 2011. [ permanent dead link ]
  5. ^ Paul Valéry, La Conquête de l'ubiquité (1928)
  6. ^ Benjamin, Walter. "The Piece of work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) p. 01.
  7. ^ a b c d Walter Benjamin (1968). Hannah Arendt (ed.). "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," Illuminations . London: Fontana. pp. 214–eighteen. ISBN9781407085500.
  8. ^ Hansen, Miriam Bratu (2008). "Benjamin's Aura," Critical Research No. 34 (Winter 2008)
  9. ^ Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) p. 4.
  10. ^ Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Historic period of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) p. four.
  11. ^ Benjamin, Walter. "The Piece of work of Art in the Historic period of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) p. 4.
  12. ^ "Cult vs. Exhibition, Department 2". Samizdat Online. 2016-07-xx. Retrieved 2020-05-22 .
  13. ^ Benjamin, Walter. "The Piece of work of Fine art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) p. 4.
  14. ^ Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) p. 4.
  15. ^ Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) p. v–half dozen.
  16. ^ Berger, John. Means of Seeing. Penguin Books, London, 1972, pp. 32–34.

External links [edit]

  • Complete text of the essay, translated
  • Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung (1932-1941) - Download the original text in French, "L'œuvre d'fine art à 50'époque de sa reproduction méchanisée," in the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung Jahrgang Five, Félix Alcan, Paris, 1936, pp. 40–68 (23MB)
  • Complete text in German (in German)
  • Fractional text of the essay, with commentary by Detlev Schöttker (in German)
  • A comment to the essay on "diségno"

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Mechanical_Reproduction

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